Once upon a time, in a certain town, there lived a Brahmin named Haridatt. He owned fields, but the yield from them was not substantial. One day, Haridatt found a snake lying under a tree in his field. As soon as Haridatt opened his eyes, he saw a snake with its hood spread out. The Brahmin realized that this was not an ordinary snake, but a deity. Haridatt decided to start worshiping this deity from that day onwards. He got up, went somewhere, and brought back some milk. He fed the snake using an earthen pot.
While giving the milk, Haridatt apologized to the snake, saying, “O deity! Until now, I considered you an ordinary snake. Please forgive me. Bless me with abundant wealth through your grace.” Saying this, Haridatt returned home.
The next day when he reached his field, he saw a gold coin lying in the pot where he had fed the snake milk the previous day. Haridatt picked up the coin. From that day onwards, Haridatt started worshiping the snake daily, and the snake began giving him a gold coin every day.
Some days later, Haridatt had to go to a distant country. He instructed his son to go to the field and feed the snake deity with milk. Following his father’s orders, Haridatt’s son went to the field and found a gold coin placed in the snake’s pot when he went to feed it milk the next morning.
Haridatt’s son picked up the gold coin and began to think that there might be a treasure of gold in the snake’s burrow. He decided to dig the snake’s burrow, but he was very afraid of the snake. The son devised a plan that when the snake came to drink milk, he would strike it on the head with a stick, causing the snake to die. After the snake died, he thought he would then comfortably dig the burrow and become a rich man by extracting the gold.
The boy did the same the next day. However, as soon as he struck the snake’s head with the stick, instead of dying, the snake got furious. The snake, in anger, bit the boy’s leg with its venomous fangs, and the boy died instantly. When Haridatt returned, he was deeply saddened upon learning about this incident.
Lesson from the Story:
Children, the fruit of greed is always bitter, which is why it is said that one should never be greedy. We should be content with what we have and always continue to work hard.
